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Monday, January 31, 2011

There has probably been a highly anticipated wait for a glimpse of the actual bags in this mysterious color. There were also rumors swirling around that some stores didn't bother ordering any bags in this color because it wasn't that impressive of a color! Alduca D'aosta has the Vert Menthe Classic City available for purchase on their website.

This is definitely a very different color Balenciaga has released. In these pictures VM looks like an evergreen with strong teal tones. What do you think? Were the store buyers right for not ordering any bags in this color, or is it love at first sight for you? Do share your thoughts! :)

Sunday, January 30, 2011

I had to literally do a double take when I stumbled across Marissa Miller's bag. It had a few similar characteristics compared to our beloved Balenciaga City. Though not an exact duplicate, the Linea Pelle bag has similar whip stitched handles (facing outwards), tassels hanging from the zipper tabs, and long shoulder strap. (I must admit I am a fan of the adjustable shoulder strap Linea Pelle has done on this; something Balenciaga should have done a long time ago.) From afar, it bears a striking resemblance to the City bag and is price significantly cheaper than the City at only $418. By no means am I trying push the Linea Pelle onto Bal lovers, but I thought it would be fun to point out the similarities!

The youngest daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, Tallulah, was spotted in Sao Paulo, Brazil carrying a Balenciaga City! The 16 year old carries the City hand held style with the shoulder strap removed. It's hard to see in these pics, so I'm going to guess it's either Anthracite or Black. In the third picture where they're getting in the car, you can see Demi's Move On Pouch. It looks like Demi is passing on her good taste in bags to her daughters!

Oldest daughter Rumer is also a fan and has been spotted here carrying a Vert D'eau Velo and wearing the flats.

Nicole Richie is also spotted again earlier today with yet another Balenciaga bag! She has been using a variety of her Balenciagas within the last couple of weeks. Today she was seen going to the hair salon carrying a gorgeous 2005 Pewter Metallic First! Fun fact: even though 2005 was the time of Chevre goatskin leather; the metallic bags were made of Agneau!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Ashley Tisdale was spotted going to a local gym in Vancouver, Canada on January 26, 2011. Copying friend Vanessa Hudgens' choice of carry on bag, Ashley totes a brand new black Weekender on her arm. I guess Weekender fever is catching on among the celebs!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Hello everybody! It's time for another edition of readers and their Balenciagas! Thank you to those who submitted a photo. We have some really beautiful pictures this time again. For this set, we will start in order last received.

Stacey shares with us a gorgeous picture of her carrying a Balenciaga First bag in Poupre! The First bag is a great small sized casual bag.

Rissian shares her newest Balenciaga purchase: 2011 Ardoise City with Rose Gold Hardware. She wraps her handles with Coach scarves to prevent wear and darkening! Great idea! Congratulations on such a stunning bag.

Sisters, Anna and Sophia from the Haute Commodity shares a beautiful photo of them each carrying Balenciaga! Anna carries an Anthracite Envelope Clutch with rose gold hardware and Sophia carries a LE Gray Suede City with gunmetal hardware. Check out their blog for more fashion tidbits and adventures.

Ashley from The Odd and Chic sends a gorgeous photo of her carrying a Sahara City with gold hardware. She has an amazing talent for putting together really cool and stylish outfits from fun and colorful pieces of clothing and accessories. Visit her blog for more great outfit photos.

Helena from Brooklyn Blonde shares a beautiful photo with her black City bag. A black Balenciaga bag goes with everything! Visit her blog for more amazing outfit photos.

Krizia from Shark Attack sends us another great picture! This time she carries her white City bag. IMO, the best neutral colored bags are white and black. Visit her fashion blog for more great posts.

Cee from To Brighten My Day shows us how versatile her Galet City can be by pairing it with another great outfit. Visit her personal style blog for more great outfit pictures.

SewPetiteGal wanted to share with us her Sky Blue Part Time bag. It is the perfect shade of light blue. Visit her blog at SewPetiteGal for more great posts on petite fashion and DIY fashion projects.

Close Up

Please send your photos to balenciagaloving@gmail.com if you're interested in being in next week's post! Thanks! :)

Monday, January 24, 2011

Al Duca D'aosta has just received this new styled tote in Ardoise. I have never seen this before until I spotted it for sale on this site. From the looks of it; it screams organization! It even has a zip compartment on the back of the bag, which can be handy to keep a wallet or cell phone. I get why they call it the "Butterfly" tote since it looks like the two flap compartments are thought to be the "wings" of the bag. The trapezoid shaped style lacks a shoulder strap, which is something I use every time I carry my bag. It is priced at €995 which is about $1359 USD so it's almost equivalent to the price of a Classic City. There are no dimensions of this bag listed, so we're clueless as to what size this bag is.

My take: It is an interesting new style Balenciaga has created. I'm not sure if I'd purchase since it does not have the shoulder strap. The flaps seem a bit funky looking to be hanging half way off the bag. The more flaps = more corners that would eventually get wear/darkening. So I'm going to have to pass on this one. Has anyone seen this bag in stores yet?

Other things:

For those who would still like to submit a picture for 'readers and their Balenciagas post, please email me them to balenciagaloving@gmail.com and include your blog url for link backs. Please submit before 6PM Eastern time Thursday for this week's post. Thank you!

For those who are looking for interested in the Limited Edition Gold Hardware bags (including the LE Turquoise): click here for updated info.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Nicole Richie was spotted hitting the gym yesterday carrying a rare Balenciaga gem. On her shoulder is a 2006 Damask Stripe Courier bag. It is one of my favorite canvas bags that Balenciaga has designed. I loved it so much that I bought the City twice but ended up selling them off because I felt that the beautiful canvas fabric wasn't a practical choice for me. I think the Damask line makes a great neutral that adds an extra "oomph" to a plain outfit. The Damask design came in the City, Work, Courier, and Day. Instead of aged brass hardware, it boasts shiny silver toned classic hardware. My only complaint is that the canvas fabric on these delicate bags start to fuzz after moderate use. I bet Nicole knows that since she doesn't carry these bags frequently either!

Nicole must be a big fan since she owns both the Damask City and Courier! I would love to raid her bag closet!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

I'm so excited to say that five lovely readers were awesome about my feature request and sent in their pictures of their Balenciagas! I hope this will become one of our favorite postings of the blog. Let's begin, shall we? I will go in the order that it was received.

Eugenie from Greece looks gorgeous here with her very pretty and broken in Balenciaga Violet City with Classic Hardware. She is a painter, designer, stylist and even makes her own bags too! Check out her MySpace page here.

One of my favorite DIY and petite fashion bloggers, SewPetiteGal has sent in a lovely picture of her carrying her Balenciaga Anthracite Twiggy. Check out her neat DIY fashion projects at her blog SewPetiteGal.

Reader Jackie wanted to share her first Balenciaga purchase: 2009 Tempete Giant City with silver hardware! Indeed, it is a gorgeous bag and very popular color. Congrats Jackie, you made a great choice. :)

Another favorite petite fashion blogger, Cee from To Brighten My Day, sent in a gorgeous modeling picture with her Balenciaga 2009 Galet City with Classic Hardware. Galet was one of the most popular colors of 2009 season and is still sought after by many collectors. You can never go wrong with a gray bag!

Fashion blogger Krizia from Shark Attack sent in an amazing modeling picture of with her Balenciaga Anthracite Brief bag with Classic Hardware. Love your casual outfit!

I wanted to thank everyone who participated in this week's in this feature. I hope to get a few more for next week! Please email me your pictures at balenciagaloving@gmail.com. Thank you!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

I was not going to do a post about this, but after reading how Bluefly has been rudely responding to this situation, it's time for everyone to be aware of what's happening. I would be wary of purchasing from them now. Thank goodness for the ladies at the Purse Forum for spotting this so quickly.

Immediately, I could tell the shape of the rivet piece is wrong and the markings on the metal plate are incorrect as well. It was deemed a counterfeit when pictures were posted by a forum member who actually purchased these fake bags.

Even though Bluefly says they are investigating this, they have made some very rude and uncalled for replies about the fake Balenciaga situation on their Facebook page:

While we don't respond to every post and we believe that this forum should be an open exchange of views and opinions, we do want to reply to these libelous claims. Bluefly stands behind the authenticity of our products. We take customer fee...dback very seriously and, of course, diligently look into reported customer issues. We have looked into the handbags that seem to be at issue here and they are authentic.

Many of the people posting these false accusations are doing so anonymously, which makes it impossible to directly address their concerns. We respect our customers privacy, and therefore will not discuss an order with anyone other than our customer. We welcome those posters that have placed orders and require assistance to call Customer Service at 1.877.BLUEFLY. We would be delighted to assist you.

Again, sorry to have to involve everyone in this discussion but we think it's our responsibility to use the web responsibly and regret that some out there don't feel the same way. This is the last we'll post on this matter, as we've invited those people to speak with us directly and we're sure our customers want to get back to fashion!

It's not libel when it is true! These bags are clearly fake if you take a look at the pictures customers have posted. It's a shame that Bluefly will not own up to their mistakes but instead deny it. How do they know if it is authentic or not? Does that mean they are going to accept these returns and try to resell them as real again? I hate that they are playing the "our word against your word" game. I feel most badly for the unsuspecting buyers who pay top dollar for a fake and assume its real.

Unfortunately, I'm going to remove them from the reputable list of retailers because only heaven knows where they are buying these fakes from. Sadly, this is not the first time they've been caught selling fakes as well, this fiasco has happened before in 2006.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Breakout star Emma Stone is a stunner in her shiny Balenciaga gown at the 2011 Critics Choice Awards. She is almost unrecognizable with her newly blonde hair, which was lightened for her role in the new Spiderman movie. The dress is a gorgeous drop waist halter gown with golden chain necklace wrap (no additional jewelry needed). The silvery gown compliments her platinum blond hair which is done up in a really cute hairdo.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

I've stumbled across these boots before while doing my usual Balenciaga browse and never gave it a second thought. Then today as I did my daily rounds on my favorite celebrity blogs, I spot Jessica Alba wearing something familiar on her feet. The buckles and round toe shape gave it away and then I remembered seeing it on the My Theresa website. They are called Navajo Suede Boots and they come in green and black. Jessica looks amazing by balancing her feminine and dressy look with these chunky military styled boots. In the pictures below, Jessica was seen getting lunch with adorable daughter Honor on January 14, 2011.

These boots do nothing when they are by themselves, but they can look stunning when worn!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Amber Tamblyn looks beautiful at the FOX TV's TCA All Star Writers Party in Pasadena, CA on January 11, 2011. We don't see Balenciaga bags often at celebrity parties or premieres since they are more of a casual bag, but at this party Amber choice of bag is a Balenciaga Envelope Clutch in black with giant silver hardware. It's a perfect choice to match with her outfit as the silver hardware compliments the folded contrast sleeves on her lovely cropped blazer and chic blue Proenza Schouler dress.

Here are some screen shots of Gisele Bundchen for Balenciaga ad campaign. I have to say she looks very interesting and not her usual glamorous model self. This is definitely a different look for her. Articles have called this look very androgynous! Though I must say, the ads Balenciaga put out are very eye catching and colorful. You can find this on the front page of Balenciaga's website.

PS: I still need a few more photos for the reader's feature post! Please feel free to submit a favorite shot of you and your Bal or just your Bal by itself. Email me them at balenciagaloving@gmail.com. Thank you!